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Topic: Is Everyone In The Spirit? (Read 6705 times)

I heard tofurky is actually pretty good. A friend used to be a vegetarian and made one for his family and everyone had their doubts. But I guess it turned out great. Personally I'm a meatatarian and cant live without gnawing on a turkey bone and could never think of substituting a giant bird I killed with my own two hands with a block of bean jelly shaped in a jello mould.

My thanksgiving was actually kinda lame. Had to work. My buddy Nate and I went to a 24 hr restaurant after our graveyard shift and had a turkey dinner which was kinda okay. My wife and children went down to Portland, Or to spend turkey day with her family. I'm hoping next year will be better. I'm gunna have to do the same thing for Christmas this year too since they have me scheduled to work. ugh.

We're gunna go cut down our Christmas tree next sunday which will be fun. Afterwords we are going to my wife's old college @ Pacific Lutheran University to listen to her former choir do their annual Christmas concert which is incredible! Should be great, can't wait!!!

Sean Kelly

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"My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste" - Proverbs 24:13

OK I have to tell you the truth about Tofurky. It is unbelievably great. It doesn't look strange at all. When it is sliced (it comes with stuffing inside) and you pour that gravy over it, well you can hardly tell it is not turkey. I have had many people who eat turkey tell me it was fabulous. It is made from wheat gluten so has the same consistency as meat.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

OK I have to tell you the truth about Tofurky. It is unbelievably great. It doesn't look strange at all. When it is sliced (it comes with stuffing inside) and you pour that gravy over it, well you can hardly tell it is not turkey. I have had many people who eat turkey tell me it was fabulous. It is made from wheat gluten so has the same consistency as meat.

This reminds me of the time I went fishing with my sister and two doctors. My sis used to work for a pharmaceutical company and they were treating three doctors to a fishing trip that day. Sis called me and asked me if I wanted to be a doctor that day as one of the doctors couldn't make the previously booked trip.

I brought drinks and sandwhiches, the sandwhiches were bologna, sort of. They were vegan bologna (Yves deli slices).

Anyway, I was down to my last sandwhich which came up missing, but one of the doctors ratted out the other saying, "Hey, he ate your last sandwhich!" We had a laugh over it but I asked him if he enjoyed it? He said yeah, it was your typical bologna and mustard sandwhich, right?

Well not exactly, I informed him. The stuff does taste just like bologna and he could care less. Now if I would have told him it was roaches or something I'm sure he would've hurled his biscuits!

Being the vegetarian, you all know, I made Tofurky for Thanksgiving for 15 people. It was great fun and we all ate way to much food.

Now I am waiting for my husband to return home from India and hopefully he will not be to mad at me for spending so much money on that new HD TV and Blue Ray player. (When the cats away the mice will play!!)

Hope you all had a very peaceful holiday weekend.

Annette

Annette, I am not a fan of tofu but I see your Husband really doesn't like it. He went all the way to India to avoid it Wow :-D :-D :-D

When I was a kid, my mother would STOP the bologna truck and buy a 5 inch thick slice. For many days I would have Bologna at lunch on white bread with mayo or mustard. The other thing was neat now that I think of it, my Mom always had a little bag of chips for me, but I could NEVER find the big chip bag they come from in the house - she had a good hidding spot from me!

That boloneee sammich was cut a quart inch thick on that soft Wonder Bread, I liked the mayo the most.

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Hey John, nothing quite like a thick bologna log, I mean its the same bologna as the thin stuff, but there's just something extra special about hackin' off a big piece of that thick bologna and putting it on a sandwhich or cracker with some honeymustard of course!

I am in the spirit! I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family, I was so happy to have my 3 oldest home with me for dinner. They are away at college.The younger kids miss having them home and so do I. I am also very excited to have finally won some tickets to the Polar Express Train event.I enter the lottery every year and never win, not that you actually get the tickets free, you just get the opportunity to buy the tickets.It sells out every year and the tickets are very limited. I have been sending in my application into the drawing every year for 15 years and have never been picked.I mean I started doing this when my oldest children were little and now they are in college.You have to send in the application with your contact info and on a designated day in October they start calling people who are randomly drawn from a bin.If you miss their call, they move on to the next person and you are out of luck.This year I FINALLY got the call! At that point they give you the choice of which night you want the tickets for, which train you want to ride and how many tickets.I picked the closest date they had to Christmas.Everyone is suppose to wear their pajamas and they serve hot chocolate on the train and Santa shows up and each child gets a Christmas bell, its a whole re enactment of the Polar Express Story.I am very excited. Especially since my 7 year old told me last night he doesn't believe in Santa.I was pretty surprised by that, I figured I would have at least another year with him. I said, well the little boy in the Polar express story didn't believe that Santa was real either and he ended up with a golden ticket to ride the Polar Express to the North Pole to see Santa for himself. I reminded him that the boy did meet Santa and got a special bell and he did believe after all. So since I had this opportunity, knowing I have those tickets, I said if santa hears you there may be a golden ticket showing up with your name on it.Then what I said? If you take the train to the North Pole and see Santa, are you still going to not believe?He said, I don't know, if I actually get a ticket to the North Pole and Santa is really there, then I guess he could be real.The thing is, they have no idea about this whole train ride event, they have never heard of it.I am going to just have the tickets magically appear with their names on them and tell Caleb that Santa must have heard how he doesn't believe and thats why we were invited to the North Pole.Maybe I will even have a letter from Santa that says that.I know, I know, I am soooo corny that I am starting to embarrass myself here and should start deleting some of this post.

I hate when reality sets in so young, I am going to milk this year for sure. I only have two younger than him and the other 4 are grown and then alot of the magic of Christmas will disappear for me.

Its alway been all about the spirit and the celebrating for us. But I love the excitement that it brings when the children go to bed on Christmas Eve, the aniticipation and wonderment.How they make me put the fire out in the fireplace so Santa doesn't get burned.How I have to make sure we have carrots for the reindeer not just cookies and eggnog or milk for Santa.We decorate the Christmas tree on Christmas eve after we get back from church service and eat dinner together.We listen to Christmas music and drink egg nog and hot cider while we decorate the tree and then we watch christmas movies and read the book Twas the Night Before Christmas and tuck them all into bed.After that, we watch Its A Wonderful Life and try to assemble their toys before they wake up at the crack of dawn. So, it appears that I do not have much more time left of this and I will be sad when its over.I had a gap in between when the older kids no longer believed, but the younger kids were too young to understand and it was kind of a bummer.Although, we will just do with the younger ones when the time comes, the same thing we started doing with the older ones.After they no longer believed, we started taking them to the homeless shelter in the mornings to cook meals.We would rotate Christmas and Thanksgiving usually. I really focused more on the importance of giving back, and being there for people who do not have families. I explained that while so many people in this world are disappointed today because they didn't get something they wanted for Christmas, something they most likely did not need but wanted, there are all these people here who would just like a meal and someone to talk to today.Never mind presents, they don't have a family member's house to go to and family to eat with.After serving the meals my kids will sit down and chat with the people there and you would not believe how happy that makes these men and women.I was surprised by that and its the first time I realized that the companionship we offered them that day was probably more important than the meal we served.Hmmm, now that I am writing this I think I am having an epiphany, I realize that maybe the spirit of Christmas will not be lost when they no longer believe, the spirit will take on a different form I suppose.The spirit of Christmas can be found serving a holiday meal at the shelter and listening to someone who just wants some company.So now that I am totally off track here, I apologize for the long winded post. Yikes! I hate when I do this.I hope you all experience the joy and magic of the holiday season!!!

Natalie, I read each and every wonderful word of your post, you are most certainly in the spirit! You brought me back in time and reminded me of the true essence of what Christmas is really about, "giving".

Loved the story of your little boy and you winning the ticket, milk it for all its worth, he will have a blast on that train!

Thanks for posting, I can feel your excitement through your words.

Now about potted meat, too salty for my fancy, hate to admit it but I loved spam as a kid!

Olive loaf , now that is some good stuff, been burnt out on tuna overload for the last 15 yrs at least.

Every now and again I get a hunkering for liver cheese and hogshead cheese (spicy).

Natalie, lovely post, you said some wonderful and beautiful things -- and as Irwin said, you are ranking with John and I about our long-winded posts, so all three of us be those ramblin' posters, that is OK. If you have stuff to say, just bring it on!!! Some just can't help themselves (like you, me and John), we need to do that forum ramblin', hee, hee. Nice to have another rambler. Wait til you read some of my stuff, eekes, I ramble so bad it's gonna make your head swim, hee, hee. I would imagine that you have some pretty honed typing skills to ramble as such, hee, hee.... Beautiful day, great life and health. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Natalie, I loved your post! What a good thing that you were able to get the train tickets! The magical time in our children's lives is way too short. I loved the wide-eyed gawking where they truly believe that anything is possible. They have the memories to warmly wrap themselves in later on. Have you found that the older your children get, the more important "traditions" are? As Amanda got more independent & out into the real world, the more she wanted our small holiday traditions to remain. Chels is proving to be the same. It's the smallest things that count. They don't remember what toys they wanted or got but the fact that you spent time doing little things sticks, the feeling of warmth, safety & family, giving & love. How lucky your older children are to be able to give TIME listening to, learning & accepting people in different situations, but for the grace of God go I...Keep us posted on the train ride, what your son did, said, maybe even pics of the surprise?? It will take us "tweeners" (no small children anymore but no grandkids yet...) back to those magical moments in our children's lives. Ramble on girl!! J

Natalie, I loved your post! Have you found that the older your children get, the more important "traditions" are? As Amanda got more independent & out into the real world, the more she wanted our small holiday traditions to remain. Chels is proving to be the same. It's the smallest things that count. They don't remember what toys they wanted or got but the fact that you spent time doing little things sticks, the feeling of warmth, safety & family, giving & love. Ramble on girl!! J

Oh Jody, you could not have said this more clearly and so truly. You yourself, are an inspiration to me....

My girls are 38 and 33, they were once upon a world apart, those 4-1/2 years made such a sibling rivalry thingy-a-doo. But now they are the very best of the best of friends, their love abounds. I am not a "tweener". What an odd word by the way. My youngest gal bestowed upon me, many years ago, two lovely young men. They are now the ages of 14 and 10, the oldest born two days past my birthday, the youngest one on my birthday. We celebrated that 3-birthday in the middle of us three, on October 2. It was rather cool to say the least. We are all Libra (duh!!!), we are all the same, that is the strange thing, peaceful, lovin' souls, oh dear, off topic and ramblin', my pardon.

There is nothing more important, now.....for my two Daughters, than to get together as a family get-to-gether, so yes, I agree 1,000%, that as the child ages, those material things become fairly irrelevant. It is the wonderful stuff that they can hold in their minds that make important in their lives, as age progresses, these feelings progress as well. Beautiful and most wonderful day, love our lives, live our lives, we are all one. Cindi

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold. The Arctic trails have their secret tales that would make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, what the night on the marge of Lake Lebarge, I cremated Sam McGee. Robert Service

Thank you to everyone for such wonderful comments about my post. I am very excited and looking forward to this Christmas and our little Polar Express Expedition.

Jody, I have noticed how much more important the traditions are to the older kids now.They always ask if we are still going to do such and such and if I mention varying any kind of tradition, forget it.My oldest two girls are away at college and they never want to miss anything.I know its hard to juggle school and a boyfriend and then our large family, but they surprise me alot. I have had both of the older girls stay home on Halloween so that they could see the little ones dressed up in their costumes and walk around trick or treating with us.We have a tradition of going apple picking to the same place every year and having a picnic and then picking pumpkins. This year was our 17th year going.They both still make it home for that every year, they would be very upset to miss it so I have to plan the dates around when they can come home.One of them goes to school in Massachusetts so its easier for her, my other daughter goes to school in New Hampshire.I think part of it is that a tradition is something that they can count on, something that won't change in their ever changing world and its a little piece of stability. It is something that can keep them connected to their childhood and their family and life at home.Maybe it offers a little security, no matter where they all go as they grow, there are some things that will remain the same at home and they will always fit in.Traditions are kind of like a family bond, almost like when families have our own inside jokes if you know what I mean.I know that the traditions we have are very important to all of my children, even the boys will ask me if we are still going to do this or that when the holidays roll around, its so important to them.I can't even change the holiday menu much or they get all indignant. I have found that I can add a new dish to try but I cannot subtract one in its place.I absolutely must make all the different foods that have become traditional for our dinner table during the holidays or "it just isn't the same" or so they tell me.I say, what ever makes them happy, thats what its all about.